Militias have been forming in Montana since February 1991. While the
rhetoric of these groups focuses on gun control and other familiar
militia causes, examination reveals that some of the leading figures
in the Montana militia movement have also participated in the
activities of racist and anti-Semitic groups.

Meetings have been held across the state, drawing as many as 800 at a
March 10 meeting in Kalispell. Two other meetings there also drew
over 150 participants. Similar gatherings held in Hamilton, Eureka,
Big Timber and Great Falls drew over 200 participants each. Smaller
numbers attended meetings in Sanders County, Billings and Troy. While
the crowds at initial meetings have been large, they have tended to
fall off somewhat at subsequent gatherings.

Montana militias often dwell on the state's history as an independent
outpost of freedom. A recent militia newsletter quoted, with
approval, Gary Marbut, president of The Montana Shooting Sports
Association (an anti-gun control group) in a call for rejection of
all federal control over the state:

Montanans are fed up with the federal government dictating to Montana
and the people of Montana and we are through with Congress's
increasing encroachment on the Bill of Rights. We have a thirst for
freedom in Montana, and we simply will not subsist under the boot
heel of federal tyranny. There may be some debate about what the
Second Amendment means to the U.S. Supreme Court or the people of
Peoria, but there is no question about what the Second Amendment
means to the people of Montana. "The great purpose" as Patrick Henry
said, "is that every man be armed."

MILITIA OF MONTANA

The Militia of Montana (M.O.M.) is among the most visible and the
most extreme of such groups in the country. M.O.M. is run in Noxon,
Montana by the Trochmann brothers, John and David and David's son
Randy. all of whom have long been involved in the white supremacist
movement. The Trochmanns have been members of the Aryan Nations, the
Idaho based neo-Nazi organization that promotes anti-Semitism, white
supremacy and the establishment of a white racist state. John
Trochmann was a featured speaker at the Aryan Nations Congress in
1990. He has also been an active supporter of Randy Weaver, the white
supremacist who was involved in a shoot-out with federal authorities.
Some members of M.O.M. circulate neo-Nazi publications among
themselves. One such book, Seed of the Woman, is a "novel" detailing
the wild exploits of several young neo-Nazis in a contemporary
America peopled by gross stereotypes. Its favorable depiction of
Nazi-inspired slaughter and its promotion of Nazi doctrine make it a
prescription for violence against Jews, blacks. homosexuals and
others.

M.O.M.'s eight-page pamphlet. "The Militia," discusses the history of
militias and their origin in the United States, arguing that the
Second Amendment was intended to allow the citizens to form
"unorganized" militias in order to protect themselves from a
potentially tyrannical government. It outlines the militia's role as
follows:

To balance the military power of the nation with the might of the
militia will put at odds any scheme by government officials to use
the force of the government against the people. Therefore, when the
codes and statutes are unjust for the majority of the people, the
people will rightly revolt and the government will have to acquiesce
without a shot being fired, because the militia stands vigilant in
carrying out the will of the people in defense of rights, liberty and
freedom.

The purpose of government is in the protection of the rights of the
people, when it does not accomplish this, the militia is the crusader
who steps forward, and upon it rests the mantle of the rights of the
people. (sic)

Displaying the group s attitude towards taking up arms, John
Trochmann recently said: "We don't want bloodshed. We want to use the
ballot box and the jury box. We don't want to go to the cartridge
box. But we will if we have to."

M.O.M.'s newsletter, Taking Aim, details the ways that the government
is currently failing to protect the rights of the people. It cites
gun control and the crime bill as evidence of this, but also suggests
a variety of conspiracy theories about plans by world leaders to
implement a world government. M.O.M. plays to paranoid fears by
making wild claims about the supposed activity of foreign military
troops in Montana and across the country. One report on the activity
of out-of-state troops brought in to fight forest fires concludes:
"One more note: Mysterious deaths have been taking place since these
troops appeared. Coincidence? We do not know." While the newsletter
does not echo the racist ideology of the Trochmanns, it makes a
homophobic slur in alluding to rumors regarding Attorney General
Janet Reno's sexual orientation.

M.O.M. advertises and distributes books, tapes and videos that
provide further "information" on their conspiracy theories. Typical
of the selection is a video advertised as "The Countdown to History
(Biochip - Mark of the Beast) UN Police Force, One World Govt., Chip
implants. All by the year 2000-Totally Documented." Also offered are
tapes and videos on organizing militias and on survival and combat
techniques.

M. J. "Red" Beckman, an influential figure in the militia movement,
has a record as an anti-Semite and an anti-tax activist. He recently
lost a long struggle with the IRS when he was finally evicted from
his land long after it had been sold to pay for taxes due the
government. Beckman, like many militia proponents, is a conspiracy
theorist. He has said that the Federal Reserve Bank, the
International Monetary Fund and the so-called New World Order are
conspiring to dominate the world. In his 1984 book, The Church
Deceived, Beckman proclaimed that the Holocaust was a judgement upon
the Jews for worshipping Satan. More recently. he appeared on
KULR-TV, a Montana television station. and repeated his view that
Jews are worshippers of Satan.

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